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Doctors at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital have appealed for volunteers to help serve patients as staff in its reopened emergency ward struggle to treat civilians who have remained in the area.
Emergency doctor Ali Saeed walks around the shell of the hospital's main building. In the old emergency ward, hospital beds lie untouched in rooms blackened by fire. Debris hangs from the ceiling.
“This hospital predates the Israeli occupation,” he told The National, and used to serve “hundreds of thousands of citizens in the Gaza Strip”, but has been reduced to rubble.
The hospital, Gaza's largest healthcare centre, was largely destroyed in a two-week Israeli army operation in late March, while civil defence workers found several mass graves in the complex after the Israeli withdrawal.
The main building, intensive care unit, and emergency, general surgery and orthopaedic departments were all completely destroyed, aid groups told The National at the time, saying it could take up to 20 years to fully rebuild.
The cancer centre and mortuary were also damaged beyond repair, while the hospital director and other doctors were detained by the Israeli military.
The complex was once one of the best medical facilities in Palestine, Dr Saeed said.
The emergency ward reopened last month, housed in the repurposed outpatient building, which was deemed to have best survived the Israeli military and now treats all types of cases.
The news brought hope to sick and wounded Palestinians, but doctors said there is not enough professional capacity to treat all patients in need of care.
“The closure of the emergency department is destruction of all the medical rights that any citizen living in the Gaza Strip deserves,” said Dr Saeed. “Perhaps the best service in various surgeries is not being provided here.
“The need for volunteer doctors in hospitals in northern Gaza is very urgent. We call for volunteer doctors to be provided to care for patients in various types of surgery.”
The new ward has capacity for 20 patients – a sharp decrease from the 70-bed ward it replaced. Doctors have been forced to flee the city along with many nearby residents, creating a critical need for medical staff at the hospital.
According to health ministry figures, more than 41,000 people have been confirmed killed since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago, with 94,925 others wounded. On October 7, an incursion by Hamas fighters across a heavily policed security zone into Israel caused the deaths of 1,200 people. More than 200 hostages were taken.
As the toll rises, so do efforts to rebuild the hospital, with the second phase under way, focusing on the surgery, maternity and internal medicine departments.
“Most of the departments need to be rebuilt from scratch,” said Dr Saeed.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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